Shock Scotland U20s loss sees Uruguay clinch final date with Spain

Rugby in Scotland hit a new low on Tuesday when their promotion-chasing U20s team lost to Uruguay at the Junior World Trophy in Kenya. The Scots had been relegated from the Junior World Championship following their 12th-place finish at the 2019 tournament in Argentina.

The pandemic meant that it wasn’t until this year that the opportunity finally arose for them to try and win their way back into the age-grade top flight.

However, despite earlier pool successes over Zimbabwe and USA, the attempt by the fancied Scots to reach next Sunday’s Trophy final in Nairobi was quashed when they were ambushed 37-26 in their pool decider with the Uruguayans.

The surprise loss at Nyayo National Stadium means that Scotland, who finished the 2023 U20s Six Nations in fifth place ahead of Wales, will now contest third place at the Trophy against Samoa, who were beaten 28-10 by Spain in their Pool B decider.

Those results will see Uruguay and the Spanish clash in the tournament decider to decide who will secure promotion to next year’s Junior World Championship in South Africa at the expense of Japan, the team that finished in 12th place on July 14 following their loss to Italy at Paarl.

Elsewhere on match day three at the Trophy, Zimbabwe guaranteed their best-ever finish at the tournament with a stunning 38-37 win against the USA. They now face the hosts Kenya in the fifth-place final at the eight-team event. The Kenyans were 22-16 winners against Hong Kong China, who will now play the USA in the seventh-place play-off.

POOL A: Scotland 26 Uruguay 37

Uruguay started on the front foot in the final match of day three and after Juan Carlos Canessa had missed an early penalty, the full-back gave the scoring pass to Pedro Brum to touch down the first try in only the fifth minute. Canessa converted but missed another presentable penalty before re-finding his range to extend the Uruguayan lead to 10 points at the end of the first quarter.

Scotland hit back soon after as Eddie Erskine powered over from close range, but the second row was then sent to the sin bin, allowing Los Teritos to strike again. From the subsequent lineout, Uruguay set a driving maul rumbling towards the line and hooker Maximo Lamelas came up with his side’s second try.

As the time on Erskine’s sin bin ticked down, Los Teritos fly-half Icaro Amarillo produced a booming drop-goal to give his side a 20-7 lead. Scotland ate into that advantage before half-time, Corey Tait profiting from a lineout drive to score before Ben Afshar’s second conversion struck a post and went over.

Uruguay lost hooker Lamelas to a yellow card on the stroke of half-time but despite starting the second half a player light, it was Los Teritos who struck next. Following good work from Guillermo Juan Storace, Canessa fed Juan Gonzalez and the winger held off the attentions of several defenders to score in the right corner.

Tait scored his second try of the match soon afterwards, but Afshar missed the conversion and when Canessa struck a long-range penalty it gave Uruguay a 30-19 lead. Los Teritos lost a second player to the sin bin in the 59th minute as replacement Francisco Garcia was shown a yellow card, and it took Scotland less than a minute to capitalise as Erskine powered over from close range again.

Afshar converted to close the gap to four points, but Los Teritos refused to panic and scored again while still playing with 14. The impressive Storace slipped through an attempted tackle from Tait before sprinting over the try line. Canessa converted to give Uruguay an 11-point lead and although he missed a long-range penalty with around 10 minutes to go, they were able to close out a famous victory.

Scotland coach Kenneth Murray said: “Very poor today. Our game management was very poor and didn’t deserve to win the game. We didn’t manage the game well enough, we didn’t exit well enough, we didn’t transfer pressure and win enough territory. And then, when we did get the ball in the right areas we couldn’t keep hold of it, so a whole host of things. A really disappointing performance.”

POOL B: Spain 28 Samoa 10

Spain booked their place in the Trophy final with a scrappy 18-point victory over two-time champions Samoa. In a repeat of the 2016 final, Spain – making only their second appearance at the tournament – started as favourites, having won comfortably against Kenya and Hong Kong China. Samoa, winners in 2011 and 2016, only edged past the same Pool B opposition.

In a largely overcast Kenyan capital, Samoa’s Afa Moleli drilled a penalty from almost halfway to open the scoring. It was Spain, though, who enjoyed most of the early territory and possession but handling errors meant they only had Jacobo Ruiz Marcos’ 10th-minute try and a penalty from fly-half Beau Finnian Peart for a 10-3 lead after the first quarter.

A malfunctioning set-piece meant Samoa struggled to gain a foothold in the game but they were almost back in it on the half-hour mark when Moleli was tackled just short of the line after an intercept took him nearly the length of the field.

On their rare forays into the Spain 22, Samoa too were let down by their final pass and in the 46th minute, Spain made them pay. After a 50-22 kick to touch, No8 Manex Ariceta Maestro emerged from the back of a driving lineout to dive over and make it 15-3. Then, with Samoa starting to get their offloading game going, Spain delivered the killer blow in the 56th minute, breaking clear to send inside centre Daniel Cantanzaro Omati over.

Even when Spain were reduced to 14 players after repeated infringements at the breakdown, Samoa couldn’t take full advantage. A try from replacement Royce Billy Jr Umutaua reduced the deficit, but Samoa followed it up with two careless yellow cards of their own. Spain spurned several more try-scoring opportunities but did add two more penalty kicks to ensure Samoa never got within two converted scores.